Did you know that to install WordPress locally using localWP you don’t need a domain name or hosting to get started creating WordPress websites on your computer?
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to install WordPress on your computer and start making websites locally. You’ll also be able to create a unique link that you can share with your clients to access your project locally.
Note: the digits in brackets e.g. (00:02) indicate the minutes of that exact explanation in the video so you can easily jump to that section and follow along.
Video: How To Install WordPress Locally using LocalWP
Install LocalWP on your Computer
To get started, open up a new tab in your browser then go to localwp.com, which will take you to a website where you can download the Local software and install it on your computer to build your website (00:52).
Click on Download for free, choose your operating system (Mac, Windows or Linux), enter your other details and then download.
When your download is complete, install and follow the prompts if you’re using Windows. With Mac you need to click on the file to extract it, then place it in your Applications folder.
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Install WordPress with LocalWP
Open up the software after the install, click (+) to add a new website (02:12)
Give your website a name you want, mine is Travel Monster.
On the Advanced option, you can choose to use a Blueprint, here we’re not going to use one so just press Continue.
In the next window you can choose to use prefered or custom settings. If you choose custom you can choose the PHP version, Web server and the Database you want to use (03:06). Choose the preferred option then Continue.
Enter your username and password, then enter your WordPress email.
Under Advanced you can choose whether to set the site as a multisite, in this case just choose no, then click the Add Site button.
After WordPress installs on your computer, enter your password and then get started (04:15)
To view your new website, press the Open Site button, and your website opens up with the default 2021 theme.
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Create a WordPress Site using LocalWP
Click on the ADMIN button to go to the admin area, enter your user name and password and log into the backend of your website.
Under Appearance > Themes, you’ll see that the 2021 theme is activated.
You can add another theme using the Add New button then upload the theme of your choice, or just search for the theme you want, for example, search for the Astra theme then install and activate it (05:37).
When you go back to your website and reload it you get this (05:51).
Back on your WordPress dashboard, under Plugins > Add New; you can search for a plugin you want then install and activate it (06:03)
Note:
- When building your website using LocalWP, your website will have a unique url ending with .local.
- When you open up your website using local, you’re able to start and stop your website. When you stop your website, it will not be running, and if anyone goes to the address they wont be able to access it (06:46).
- With LocalWP you’re also able to delete a website, you just have to right click on it and choose the delete site option, which moves it to trash, but you’re unable to recover it.
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When you’re done creating your website to your satisfaction, you can enable the Live Link option at the bottom (07:37), which enables you to create a special link that you can copy and then share with your clients so they can see what you’re working on.
If you want to move your website to the internet when its all done, you can click o the Connect Host option at the bottom right, then you can choose from the 2 hosts; Flywheel or WPengine.
If you don’t want to use any of these hosts you can also just migrate your site to whatever other host you want.
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In Closing
Hopefully, now you can install WordPress locally using LocalWP and kickstart working on your WordPress projects locally and even be able to share them with your client to preview without having to get a domain or hosting in the first place.
For any questions, comments or suggestions, let me know in the comments section below. Subscribe to my newsletter and youtube channel for more tips and tutorials.
